On National Fish Farmers' Day on Saturday, Assam's fisheries minister, Parimal Shuklabaidya said that the state has set a goal of increasing fish production to five lakh metric tons by constructing a gene bank worth Rs 10 crore.
Suklabaidya congratulated the farmers for embracing cutting-edge technology such as Biofloc and Cage Culture to improve productivity, recognizing the farming community's incomparable hardships and tenacity.
“Since 2016, Assam has been steadily improving in the fish farming sector, with production reaching 3.93 lakh metric tonnes. The development of the gene bank, for which the government has spent Rs 10 crore, will improve fish production up to five lakh metric tonnes,” the minister said on Saturday at Jungal Balahu Fish Farm in Raha, Nagaon district.
The five-year Gene Bank for Indigenous Fish (GBIF) initiative is being implemented by the state government. With 951.9 crore fish seed fry produced in 2019-20, Assam is the first northeastern state to achieve self-sufficiency in fish seed production, and it is supplying them to neighboring states. The initiative, which is being carried out by the Assam Agricultural University's College of Fisheries, Raha, aims to conserve germplasm and restore Assam's endangered fish species.
Fishing, unlike in the past, is no more a neglected sector, with Prime Minister Narendra Modi giving it high priority,” he said, adding that the BJP-led government in Assam has been working hard to make use of the state's rich water resources to boost fish production.
Many youngsters who have returned to the state as a result of the Covid-induced lockdown have taken up fish farming by building individual and community ponds with government assistance, according to Suklabaidya. “10,000 ponds have been built out of 12,000 individual and communal ponds,” he continued.
According to Nagaon Deputy Commissioner Kavitha Padmanabhan, the district's fisheries sector is progressing well, and the district has achieved self-sufficiency in fish production.
